Another Bloom Day/In a Vase on Monday Mash-up

Two great memes, Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and In a Vase on Monday, coincide once again this month so rather than creating two separate posts I've combined them.  But first the most exciting news: we got rain this weekend!  After a prior rain forecast touted as a virtual certainty failed to materialize, most people I know turned a deaf ear to talk of a slight chance of rain on Friday.  When rain started to fall early Friday evening, my husband chided me for thinking it'd amount to anything.  However, once it got started, it came down steadily well into Saturday morning, accompanied by the best lightning show I can remember - it went on for hours!  All told, we got a little over half an inch of rain, which is very good for us.  It was our first real rain since late March and just about everyone here is giddy about it.

However, the rain came too late to give us a Bloom Day boost.  My traditional fall bloomers have been slow to develop.  The bush violet, Barleria obtusa, has a few tiny blooms but it's far from ready for prime time exposure.  Even my beloved Plectranthus ciliatus 'Zulu Wonder' has been light on blooms thus far.

While the clump of 'Zulu Wonder' I have in the back garden has more flowers, this one in a relatively shady area of the front garden has experienced less insect damage so it's more presentable

Senna bicapsularis (aka Winter Cassia) opened its first flowers this week.

I didn't cut the Senna back as hard as I should have after last year's bloom.  Not only is the plant very leggy this year but the  flowers are largely out of reach.

As the Senna flowers were hard to see in the photo above, I cut 2 stems to make up an arrangement for In a Vase on Monday to show them off.

This photo shows the arrangement from both the front and the back.  In addition to Senna bicapsularis, it includes white Eustoma grandiflorum, Gaillardia 'Fanfare Citronella', Lantana 'Samantha', Leucanthemum x superbum, and Zinnia elegans.

The Japanese anemones (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica) surprised me by producing a smattering of blooms this fall despite our very dry year.

Both noID cultivars came with the garden

The ornamental grasses still look great of course and a few other plants are putting on a pretty good show.

Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum' is on the left and Pennisetum 'Sky Rocket' is on the right

All 4 of my Arbutus 'Marina' are loaded with flowers this month, although mature fruit is also forming

The Erigeron glaucus 'Wayne Roderick' I planted in the front garden in early September are already blooming.  The older plants in the back garden are lagging behind a bit.

I picked up 3 Celosia argentea 'Intenz' several weeks ago to provide a blast of color in the backyard border

I was thrilled to find this Helichrysum argyrophyllum groundcover I planted in early March blooming in a sunny corner behind my lath (shade) house.  The silver foliage is accented with papery yellow flowers.

Feathery Phylica pubescens makes the most of the light in the back garden

A few plants rebounded as the temperatures cooled to produce a second season of bloom.

Lotus jacobaeus dropped all its flowers when the horrible heatwave hit in early July.  Those tiny, deep burgundy, almost black, flowers are back this month.

The Pentas are making the most of our cooler temperatures too (Pentas 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossom, left, and P. lanceolata 'Nova, right)

I cut Wahlenbergia 'Blue Cloud' back following the worst of the summer heatwaves but they're back in bloom in one of the driest areas of my garden.  The plants are slowly spreading themselves around but they're very well-mannered about it.

Much of what was blooming last month is still blooming, albeit in lesser quantities.

The dahlia blooms are getting smaller but narrowing stems still can't hold up their heavy heads, especially after a good rainstorm.  Clockwise from the upper left, we have 'Terracotta', 'Punkin Spice', 'Loverboy', and 'Otto's Thrill'.  The pink and white flower in the last photo is a mutant form of 'Otto's Thrill'.

The dahlias didn't look great following our rainstorm but I still managed to cut enough blooms for 2 more arrangements on Sunday morning.

This arrangement was designed around Dahlia 'Terracotta'.  In addition to the dahlia, the vase contains Coprosma 'Plum Hussey'(foliage), Correa 'Wyn's Wonder' (aka Australian fuchsia), and Grevillea 'Superb'.

Despite all the flowers I cut last week, Dahlia 'Punkin Spice' had more to offer this week.  In addition to the dahlia, the vase contains Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' (foliage), Auranticarpa rhombifolium (berries), Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' (foliage), Pennisetum 'Rubrum' (feathery plumes), and red-orange Zinnia elegans.

The large-flowered Grevilleas bloom year-round here.  Grevillea 'Superb' (left) is the most floriferous.  On the right, top to bottom are close-ups of 'Superb', 'Peaches & Cream', and 'Ned Kelly'.

The Lantanas are also long-blooming, although they need to be cut back regularly to prevent them from getting twiggy.  Clockwise from the upper left are 'Samantha', 'Lucky White', a noID pink-orange variety', 'Irene', and another noID pink variety.

This is the third Bloom Day in a row featuring Zephyranthes candida!

The Zinnias are starting to mildew and the raccoons got an early start in pulling them out last week.  I expect to yank the rest of them and dig up the dahlia tubers by the end of the month to make way for winter-blooming plants in my cutting garden.

I'll end my Bloom Day report as I usually do with collages showing the best of the remaining bits and pieces flowering in various areas of the garden.

Top row: Duranta 'Sapphire Skies', Lavandula multifida, and Leucophyllum laevigatum Middle row: Melaleuca thymifolia, Polygala myrtifolia 'Mariposa', and Rosmarinus 'Gold Dust' Bottom row: Symphyotrichum chilense, Tibouchina urvilleana, and Trichostema 'Midnight Magic'

Top: Artemisia ludoviciana Bottom row: Osteospermum '4D Silver', Leucanthemum x superbum, and Eustoma grandiflorum (aka lisianthus)

Top row: Achillea 'Moonshine' (back for round 2), Aloe 'Johnson's Hybrid', and Brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldi' (at last) Middle row: Cuphea 'Vermillionaire', Euryops 'Sonnenschien', and Hunnemannia fumariifolia Bottom row: Leonotis leonurus, Oncostele 'Wildcat', and Wilsonara 'Wildcat Harmony'

Top row: Correa 'Wyn's Wonder' and Cuphea 'Starfire Pink' Middle row: Gomphrena 'Itsy Bitsy', G. 'Pinball Snowtip Lavender', and Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl' Bottom row: flower-like Leucadendron "Safari Sunset' and burgundy-flowered Pelargonium peltatum

For more Bloom Day posts, visit Carol at May Dream Gardens, and for more arrangements made from materials at hand in the garden, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

This week's vases in their final places

All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party